This relates generally to wireless communications.
Group resource allocation is a wireless communication technique to allocate resources to multiple users as a group in order to save control overhead and increase network capacity. It may be utilized, for example, in a WiMAX network. (IEEE Std. 802.16-2005, IEEE Standard for Local and Metropolitan Area Networks, Part 16: Interface for Fixed Broadband Wireless Access Systems, 802.16-2009 (802.16e) and 802.16m, IEEE New York, N.Y. 10016).
Generally, signaling information for allocations using group resource allocation is transmitted by way of a so-called MAP information element (IE) transmitted from a base station to a mobile station. The first MAP IE used by group resource allocation mechanism is called the group configuration MAP IE, which is used to add a mobile station to a group. Deletion and rearrangement of mobile stations within a group is performed in the group resource allocation IE that also signals the allocation information for the mobile stations within a group.
Since the MAP IEs also contain allocation information, the MAP IEs need to be parsed with minimum delay. The time critical processing of MAP IEs is called “online processing”. However, the mobile station addition, deletion, and rearrangement processes are “background processing” which are not time-critical and can be performed on a slower scale. The inclusion of background processing in MAP IEs slows down the parsing of MAP IEs causing undesirable delay for online processing. This makes the mobile station more expensive in terms of cost and power consumption, in some cases.